Aftereffects
by love at third sight
Summary: She thinks it's highly unfair how she's gotten into this mess. GinTsu. Spoilers for Ch. 492 and 493. Lemon.


a/n: All hail the gorilla, for he has bought us chapter 492 - 493...

My headcanon is that Gintoki is 28 and Tsukki is around 24 - 25. Just so we're on the same page.

I know Hotaru is evil in chapter 494 but well... whatever! Shameless porn awaits.

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-x-

_So tell me {tell me}_  
_Have you ever felt a connection this strong?_  
_Dynamic symmetry the way we move_  
_Is like electric poetry in motion_  
_Sensory overload, defined original_  
_Seductive frequency coming to me in stereo_  
_It seems that you were made for me_

- "Binary Love", Blake Lewis

-x-

"That man seemed nice," Hotaru commented after the Yorozuyas left.

Tsukuyo snorted. "You mean that perverted son of a gun?"

"He wasn't that bad. As I recall, you fell for him - "

"THAT was because of the drug, _goddammiiiiiiiiiiit_!"

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks," Hotaru said smugly. "I mighta been doped up on that incense too, but I _did_ clearly hear some things that belong to a shojo manga rather than a weekly serialization in Shonen Jump."

"They don't mean anythin'," she retorted. "And you should go back to work."

"Mmm, nah. You were right, Tsukuyo. We sell our bodies but at least we don't sell our hearts." Hotaru smiled and put one steady hand on Tsukuyo's shoulder.

"But still, though. I nearly swooned when he said that the_ Shinigami daiyuu is designated for me and only me for all eternity. _God, you're so lucky. I wish my beloved would say those things to me."

"Hotaru, that's enough."

"Seriously though, how are you two not together?"

"I ask the same thing to myself every day," Hinowa said, placing a hand over her heart.

"Hinowa, not you too!" Tsukuyo protested. "I don't have the time to date, and even if I did, it certainly wouldn't be with that good-for-nothing, lazy, perverted samurai!"

She huffed and walked away.

Hotaru and Hinowa looked at each other.

"They're soul mates," Hinowa said, sighing tragically.

"Yep," the other girl agreed.

-x-

It wasn't fair.

She figured it was her destiny to be stuck with the short stick, but she had exceeded expectations so far. She'd worked her ass off to become where she was right now, leader of the Hyakka, having made a good reputation of herself and getting to defend the women in her city - right?

But seriously.

Literally everybody in Yoshiwara returned to normal _except for her_. Because obviously life wasn't fair.

No, she just had to like a stupid, lazy, son-of-a-bitch who pissed himself in front of everybody and got away with saying garbage he had absolutely no right to say at all.

Exhibit A:

_"Hey… Keep your mitts off my woman. The Shinigami daiyuu is designated for me and only me for all eternity. And I ain't letting anyone lay a finger on her. There ain't a single woman that you bastards can just take and do what you want with."_

Exhibit B wasn't much better:

_"It's fine by me… If it's what you wish, I'll become yours and yours alone."_

And lastly, Exhibit C:

_"I guess I'm really no good. I can't look at the woman I really want to be with… the same way I always have."_

"All lies," she said out loud to nobody. It was depressing.

Unfortunately Seita overheard her sentiment, having just finished taking a bath and drying his hair.

"Huh? Whatcha talkin' about, Tsukuyo-nee-chan?"

"Nothin'," she said, immediately blushing.

-x-

He'd woken up with morning wood, as he had for the last five days. It was really incredible - somehow that love incense had lingering effects and was playing havoc with his body well after the psychological effects were more than over. It'd been deeply disturbing how people reported he was ready to do literally anybody, from kids to old people. Thankfully he didn't remember _doing_ anything regarding elderly women.

That particular day had passed with a blur - he wasn't exactly sure what he said or did, but he did remember flashes of lucidity. He just hoped he hadn't said anything he'd regret more than the ridiculous things Tsukuyo had claimed to have done.

_She doesn't know, right?_ he thought, peering at the mirror in the bathroom. Lately he'd been having more and more dreams about her. And they weren't exactly innocent dreams, either. He didn't blame himself for lusting after her - any man with a good set of working eyes could see she'd be a sight in bed - but they were only sexual fantasies. The real woman already came with twin sets of emotional baggage and he knew her too well, knowing she would have turned him down.

Sighing, he set himself out for a cold shower. If that didn't bring down his boner nothing else would. At least Kagura was asleep.

-x-

Just confront him, and tell him. She desperately needed to get over this - what was it? Crush? Infatuation? Phase of insanity?

Whatever.

She picked up the phone, held her breath, and dialed the Yorozuya's number.

He picked up - "Yes, this is Sakata Gintoki speaking. How can I help you?"

She struggled to calm down. With some modicum of effort she managed to squeak out, "Er, it's me, Tsukuyo."

"Yeah? What do you want?" Suddenly he had gone from the ultimate professional freeter to the slacker she unfortunately had a raging hormonal and frankly abnormal reaction to.

Good question, honestly. What _did_ she want? She pushed those thoughts away before she accidentally said something she didn't mean.

"Not much. Thanks for coming down and helpin' us. I know that incense wasn't a walk in the park."

"Yeah, no kidding," he said easily. "You owe me, you know."

"I don't wanna hear that from a broke-ass loser."

"_Ouuuuuuuch_," he replied sarcastically. "What if I said you just owe me your company?"

"Depends on what you're planning to do," she said, heart beating at a million pumps per second. Fuck, he was asking her out, wasn't he? Fuck this unnaturally good-looking asshole and her inability to hang up the damn phone.

"I've got a pair of Otsuu tickets that I might or might not have received from a certain Patsuan. You wanna go?"

"I've got work," she said, which was a half lie. She was the one in charge of scheduling patrols and it wouldn't have bothered anybody (least of them Hinowa) to have a day off.

"Do you ever have fun? Christ."

"Do _you_ ever work?" she retorted.

"Actually, yeah I do. I pay the rent every month like a responsible model citizen of Edo."

"Liar. Kagura asked me to adopt her since she started complainin' about living with smelly samurais with bad permed haircuts."

"Shitty brat doesn't know how good she has it," he replied. "But I can take a hint. I never liked Otsuu in the first place - maybe Kagura can make better use of these tickets with her gal pals."

"How about you come here for some tea and dango?" she asked. Fuck, what the hell was she doing? Wasn't she the same exact woman who just said she'd never date an asshole like Sakata Gintoki?

Smooth, Tsukuyo, she thought to herself. Really smooth.

"Sure, why not."

Fuck, he agreed. This was getting out of control.

-x-

Probably unintentional, he thought to himself, but he laughed to himself when he saw that a love hotel was literally a block away from the tea shop she'd given the address to meet him.

She was waiting with a big scowl and a pipe stuck in her mouth.

"Late," she said. "Count yourself lucky, because I've got an hour for lunch today. Usually it's thirty minutes."

"Whatever," he replied, scooting into the booth. "How are things?"

"Good. Less crime, less courtesans being swindled, less samurai pretendin' that all the women online in porn belong to him - "

"Uh, Tsukki, that was the incense, okay? Let's just forget about that."

The waitress came around to pass them their plates of dango. She sipped her tea while he dug in, trying very hard to not notice how attractive he was across from her.

"I'm just saying that it's all good," she said. "I really am grateful for your help though."

"It was pretty funny how you fell in love with me that time though," he said off-handedly. She choked on her tea.

"Tha - THAT WAS BECAUSE OF THE INCENSE, YOU BASTARD."

"I know," he said, putting his hands in front of him, though he was laughing. "But it was pretty great while it lasted, ya know? Not everyday I get to see you flustered."

_I'm flustered every time I see you_! she thought furiously. _Don't laugh, you asshole!_

"Oh? Well what about you? If I recall correctly, it wasn't me who said '_The Shinigami daiyuu is designated for me and only me for all eternity.'"_

"Rubbish. You know I was doped up even worse than you were."

"Or, ya know, one of my favorites was '_If it's what you wish, I'll become yours and yours alone.' _Didn't know you were such a romantic, Gintoki."

"Shut up," he said, grimacing. "I seriously said all that?"

She nodded. He groaned. "What else? Please tell me I didn't say anything else."

"You did." Here her voice was quieter, less humorous. "_I guess I'm really no good. I can't look at the woman I really want to be with… the same way I always have."_

He stared at her for a while, just chuckling to himself. "... Geez. I really am a horrible guy, huh?"

"The worst," she said flatly.

She tapped the ash from her pipe, sighing to herself. "And to think, I nearly took you seriously."

"You did?"

"Almost," she said. Inwardly, she was questioning her sanity for even implying she would reciprocate. But meeting him, being with him -

It was all a gamble, wasn't it? She poured the tea into her cup, trying not to meet his eye, and failing miserably when he sighed to himself.

"Can I be honest with you?"

"Hm?"

"I feel like... if I had the chance to re-do things over, I wouldn't have said that."

"Too late for that now, Gintoki. Or are you just regretting that you've wasted your best lines?"

"Well - yeah. Yeah I am. Because they were all truths, see?"

The lump of dango in her throat seizes up and she nearly chokes on the chunk of food. "Gintoki!"

"I think this might have been obvious, but in case you're too dumb to get it: I, Sakata Gintoki, actually like you, despite the fact that you require me to save your ass all the time."

"Fuck off," she said, but her arm is shaking and she knows she's turning two shades of red. "I should get back on patrol."

"Hey, wait a minute - what's your problem?"

"My problem is that _I have to go_."

"I've only taken up ten minutes of your time," Gintoki said quietly. "What's wrong with you? A man can't get an answer from the woman he loves?"

"I won't entertain a man who's a liar," she said flatly.

"But - "

"Don't play around with people's feelings!" she said angrily. "How am I supposed to take ya seriously? You know half of Edo, and you seduced half of Yoshiwara - you coulda had them at your whim - and here, you're telling me what you said was real?"

"Tsukuyo - "

"You're the worst," she declared and slammed down the bills on the table.

-x-

He drove back in a daze, shellshocked and mildly impressed that he hadn't crashed his motorcycle into anybody.

Of course she would have reacted negatively. That was normal for any woman to think that way, from witnessing such lecherous activity.

Maybe she'd been upset after deceiving her once. Maybe he had sweet-talked another woman after saying those words to her. Either way, he wondered why he'd thought it'd been a good idea to tell the truth after that entire fickle affair of love incense.

What he did know was that he wasn't a liar. It just wasn't his style to lie to women - sure, he bent the truth once in a while, but he never deliberately deceived women. And Tsukuyo knew that, didn't she? She had to, and for a moment his hand crept near the telephone, wanting to dial the number of Hinowa's shop so he could explain everything. To apologize but reiterate everything he said; for he was a man of his word.

She was, to him, beautiful. And the strangest thing was she seemed to be utterly unaware of this - nor of the ultraviolet from her pupils that contracted with each emotion that made her so easy to read like a book. The softness of her body, contrasted with her sharp mouth and quick hands was beautiful. He had been the recipient of her kunai on too many occasions, and yet, he never totally minded when it came to she-beasts like her. He knew he was an ass to her, and she was gutsy enough to know when he really deserved a good ass-kicking.

Maybe it was because at the end of the day, he figured she was the closest thing he'd ever get to a soul mate. It was cheesy, but there was no other way to describe that intangible feeling of connection.

And it wasn't like he didn't love women - on the contrary, he adored women. Just not the psycho bitches he dealt with - not the one who made it a point to wave her _niginata_ like those harmless lightsaber toys kids played with around Halloween, not the one who made it her job to literally live above his ceiling. Tsukuyo might have made it into this category of women to avoid if he hadn't been with her in circumstances too dear and near to his heart.

Not every woman who can stand on her two legs can throw kunai at the man who's ordered his sensei's death. She's brave and sexy, and fuck if that's not a winning combination.

-x-

"I'm putting myself on desk duty," she announced to her subordinates. There was no way she was able to concentrate if she chose to patrol. Not when _his_ way was to confront the problem head on. She wouldn't be surprised if he decided to hunt her down, and if so, she wanted to be on her turf. And anyways, her office in the top floor of the Yoshiwara municipal building happened to be a private room. No shame and embarrassment to be witnessed in public, at any rate.

"No problem, Boss," her cute apprentice says and the rest of the girls go off. It almost makes her wish she hadn't put off the paperwork. Almost being the key word, here.

The small patch of sunlight that illuminates Yoshiwara gives her new life. She opened the window and lights up her pipe.

Tsukuyo doesn't have a secretary; there's no requirement for anybody to express a complaint to the paramilitary force. Her tanto swords are laid in a nearby drawer and her kunai are neatly stowed away. There's no need for her to be armed when all she does is basic data entry. Anybody who goes through the Hyakka initiation route does a few months of this before they're allowed to patrol.

She's busy into her work while a certain samurai asks around. He walks up the stairs and she stretches all of kinks out of her shoulders.

The door is open and they make eye contact.

"Tsukuyo - "

"What the hell are ya doing here?"

"I came here to explain."

"There's nothin' to explain. I don't want anythin' to do with you."

"If that was true, you wouldn't have given a damn about what I said to you last week," he said. "And don't give me that bullshit about throwing away your womanhood. You've never thrown it away."

Her eyes are electric blue today. He's never met anybody else so vibrant like her before.

She protests through wordless frowns and stern gazes, but slowly there is a dawn of realization that there won't be any escape. Not from someone as equally as stubborn as she is. He will wear her down. It is as inevitable as the moon rising in Yoshiwara each night.

"I wasn't lying. I might not have been conscious of it - but I wasn't lying."

"Prove it," she said. In those two words are all the permission he needs.

Their first kiss is unexpectedly violent, a cacophony of resistance and submission. Her lips tastes like ash and flowers. She pushed him back, and for a nanosecond he let go so she could breath and then he dived in once more, pressing her body against the wall like the way he's fantasized for months now. His hands have pinned her down and there is a pink flush on her face that indicates that she likes it.

It's obvious what she's thinking: just one time. If she gives in one time, maybe she'll stop falling in love with him, maybe she won't be so weak anymore for succumbing to a man like him. And it's that sudden desperation that turns him on.

Between both of them he finds it too difficult to even speak to her, who is fire and steel and all bone.

"Gintoki, let it be known - I don't do this for anybody."

He knows. He knows that she's one of the rarest creatures in a sex-crazed district: a virgin. She's beautiful and strong - but also a virgin.

She slowly unties her obi from her black kimono; the familiar one that has the maple-leaf pattern on it.

No one has seen her like this before. The unfamiliar feeling of being wanted overwhelmed her like the scent of his shoulders - there is no substitution for the fiery redness of his eyes as he looks at her undressing.

Casually, he says, "You're not going to beat me up for sleeping with you, right?"

"Not today," she said. She leaned down for a kiss, and he pulled her down on her desk, tugging her hair pins out of her blonde head. It tumbles down in all its glory and he marvels that someone as hot as Tsukuyo is even thinking about sleeping with him. She is real and transient at the same time. Her breasts are heavy and full, and he drowns in their glory before squeezing her ass. The sheets of paper that she'd been writing on flutter down to the ground and so does her ink brushes but neither of them notice.

One hand is full of her messy hair, and he's distracted by her lips, which are as sweet as honey. He can't get enough of her. Not when she's whispering his name in his ears and making those small noises that betray her interest.

There is no going back. They are past the point of no return, and he wonders if she knows that. He wonders if she knows he's too buried deep to know there is nothing reversible about this situation.

"Take off your clothes," she breathes as he's kissing the sweet spot in between her collarbones. "Please."

"Oi, since when did you become so shameless?" he teased, and she flushed. Still, he complied with her request, shedding his loose yukata and unbuttoning his pants. Halfway there. He could work on the rest later.

It was easy to admire the sight of all her naked glory lying beneath him. Her skin was damp and slick with the thinnest sheen of sweat, and he ran one finger down from her stomach to her clit. Her back arched ever so slightly.

He grinned. "I think you liked that."

He does it again before she really lets out the first moan of the afternoon. It's music to his ears. He dips one finger inside her heated core and she gasps his name in three velvet syllables. _Gin. To. Ki_. The sound of a woman in pleasure is something that he hasn't heard in years, but Tsukuyo's voice is more than welcome to his ears. He made his way downwards, mouth slowly licking her thatch of golden curls.

Her arousal was intoxicating. Sealing his lips against her, the effect was instantaneous. Her back arched sharply upwards, knocking the nearby textbooks off her desk.

There was no room for her to even process anything rationally - the desire to pull away or remain still while his tongue was prodding, lapping, and sucking her without any mercy remained precarious. The amount of pleasure she received was almost unbearable. Any form of embarrassment that she might have felt earlier was overruled in the throes of ecstasy, and there was no chance of sensible thought. Especially those that would interfere in an orgasm that would leave her breathless and shaking to her very core.

"You should look at how pretty you are," he said, standing above her once more, his voice thick from the excitement of seeing her climax.

She was too overwhelmed to come up with a snappy retort. Flushed, bothered, and almost irritated with how she had let herself go, she moved to stroke his cock, intent on returning the favor.

He didn't let her, choosing to press her arms against the wooden surface of her desk once more. "I don't think so," he said, his eyes gleaming with anticipation. "You're mine."

Somehow the impact of that statement drove her even more insane.

"But - "

"I once said that you were made for me, _Shinigami Dayuu_. You don't owe me anything except for your body." She tasted herself from his lips. The reaction was overkill for what she considered to be one intoxicating, silly kiss. Her body was getting worked up again. It wasn't fair.

Aligning her hips with his, the slickness of his erection rubbed against her swollen clit. Her breath had gotten shallow again, though she was loathe to display any further signs of arousal. He slipped inside her slowly, allowing her room to adjust, but there was no need. She hooked her knees against his back and pressed _hard_.

"Fuck - !" he swore as he found himself completely enveloped in her essence. It was fucking unnatural, he thought to herself, for any virgin to thoroughly enjoy herself as if she had the experience of a whore.

"Guess you liked that, huh?"

"Shut up," he said, slowly pushing his thumb over her clit.

"_Nnngh_." She was trying to keep quiet, but fuck that. Another one of his fingers rubbed one of her overly sensitive nipples, and this time he thrust into her with more force than necessary. His face leaned down to hide in the crook of his neck.

Burying both her hands into his hair, she finally gave up. If this was a battle of wills, then she was no match for him in bed. Or more specifically, her desk.

"Ah - "

He picked up speed shortly after that. Tsukuyo cried out, almost blind to anything but the sound of the steady slap of their pubic bones grinding against each other, the sharp inhalation and exhalation of his breath as he slid in and out, and the staccato of her own "_Ah - ah - ah_ - "

There is no method to the madness; suddenly she jerks her hips to meet his. The surroundings blur, and then there is a moment of nothing except for the silent paroxysm of joy and ecstasy that comes in rhythmical waves. She muffled her scream by pressing her mouth to his chest.

He paused all movement just to enjoy that sweet victory. But it's not too long until the urge to cum is there, like the finish line after a long marathon.

"I can't - fucking hell - "

The erraticism and messy movements are almost enough for her to get off twice, but she doesn't. Instead it's her turn to watch him lose control, panting his release. And it's all because of her. It's almost sick how much she likes watching Sakata Gintoki coming inside of her.

When it is all over and done, they don't move.

"You said you were the type of man who only slept with a lady once."

"I lied. I'd sleep with you a thousand times if I could."

"Well, in that case..."

-x-

_the end_

-x-

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a/n: _Review plz_


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